In first move as Congress chief, Kharge forms 47-member panel, retains most from CWC

Most of the members of the last CWC, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former party presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, have been retained in the interim panel announced just hours after Kharge took over as the new party chief.

List of Steering Committee members.

The remaining members of the Steering Committee.

Shashi Tharoor, who was Kharge’s contender in the party’s presidential elections, is not among the committee members. Tharoor earlier headed the Professional Congress wing of the party but resigned ahead of the polls. The CWC special invitees who were not included in the new panel are Ajay Kumar Lallu, Deepender Singh Hooda, Sachin Rao, and Chinta Mohan. Seva Dal chief organiser Lalji Desai, IYC chief Srinivas B V, NSUI chief Neeraj Kundan, Mahila Congress chief Netta D’Souza and president of Intuc G Sanjeeva Reddy were also not on the list.

Anand Sharma, a CWC member and a prominent leader of the G23 group that was pressing for an overhaul within the organisation, has been retained in the Steering Committee.

All the members of the CWC and office bearers of the party put down their papers to Kharge in order to enable him to choose his own team.

According to the list released by the AICC general secretary (Organisation), the members of the Steering Committee include senior party leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma, K C Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Digvijaya Singh.

“As per Article XV (b) of the Constitution of the Indian National Congress, the Congress president has constituted the Steering Committee which would function in place of the Congress Working Committee,” the order read.

The CWC is the apex decision-making body of the Congress and the Steering Committee will now take all decisions till the ratification of Kharge’s election at the party’s plenary session. The session is likely to be held in March next year.